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Viewers Vote for TVNZ in TV Guide's Best on the Box

New Zealanders have shown their appreciation for TV ONE and TV2, with their shows and stars winning a staggering 16 awards out of a possible 25 in the annual TV Guide Best on the Box awards, announced today.

One of the biggest winners was Breakfast’s Tamati Coffey, whose name is attached to three wins. Breakfast won Best Morning Show, and Coffey not only took the Best Weather Presenter gong for the third time, but has also been voted by the public as the Sexiest Man.

“Knowing that Kiwis love getting up to speed with their news, business and weather from Breakfast makes the 3:30am wake up call all worth it!” Tamati told the TV Guide.

“I’m also very humbled to be accepting my third Best Weather Presenter award, and with the Sexiest Man, well, I don’t know about that, but I’ll take it! Thanks New Zealand!”

Those weren’t the only awards for Breakfast, with the Saturday edition’s presenter Toni Street picking up the female equivalent of Coffey’s award for Sexiest Woman, and Business presenter Nadine Chalmers-Ross taking Rising Star.

TVNZ’s News and Current Affairs shows polled well across the board, with Fair Go winning for Best Advice Show, the 2011 Rugby World Cup winning for Best Special Event, and ONE News once again winning for Best News.

“This is an honour for us, because it is voted for by our viewers,” says ONE News anchor Wendy Petrie. “Although it is great to win critics’ awards as well, there’s just that little something extra when you know you’re striking it right with your actual audience, and we couldn’t be happier.”

There were also big wins for TVNZ in the drama field, with TV2’s Shortland Street winning Best Drama and Best Actress (Amanda Billing), and Go Girls winning Best Actor (Jay Ryan).

Other awards for TVNZ include Marcus Lush for Best Presenter, General, Intrepid Journeys for Best Documentary Series, Tangiwai for Best One-Off Drama, MasterChef New Zealand for Best Culinary Series, and What Now? for Best Kids/ Youth Show.